Former lawyer wants 'truth,' wins hearing

WHITE PLAINS — A former lawyer who served a federal prison term for conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruction of justice has won a hearing on his bid to overturn that conviction.

BY HEATHER YAKIN

WHITE PLAINS — A former lawyer who served a federal prison term for conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruction of justice has won a hearing on his bid to overturn that conviction.

Donald Roth, 43, who had his law office in Poughkeepsie and who had gotten a string of favorable verdicts and pleas for his clients in City of Newburgh felony cases, was convicted at trial in 2004 and sentenced in 2005; he began serving the sentence in 2008 and was paroled earlier this year. Prosecutors say Roth and a co-defendant got crime witnesses to change their testimony. Roth says he and his co-defendant, investigator David St. John, are innocent.

"All I want is the truth," Roth said on Thursday.

A day earlier, a federal magistrate ordered a hearing, set for Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court in White Plains.

Roth began his fight for a hearing through a habeas corpus proceeding in 2009, after he learned that the key witness against him, Charles "Flip" Melvin, had gotten a $5,000 payment from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms — for which Melvin was an informant — two months after testifying. Melvin testified that Roth and John coerced him into changing his story in a drug prosecution against two of their clients. The two drug dealers also testified against Roth and St. John.

The payment to Melvin was never revealed during the trial, Roth said, and according to his motion papers Melvin and his ATF handler testified that Melvin would not get compensation for testifying.

If prosecutors knowingly fail to reveal a payment for testimony, that can constitute a violation of a defendant's right to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against him.

Roth's lawyer, Deveraux Cannick of Queens-based Aiello Cannick, did not return a call Thursday for comment.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, asked to comment on the case, did not. In court papers, prosecutors characterized Melvin as a minor witness, and said the ATF payment was part of Melvin's existing cooperation agreement and unrelated to his testimony against Roth.

Melvin is under federal indictment on charges of being a felon in possession of ammunition; federal court records say he's in custody.